


[Art] The Accidental Warlord And His Pack

by Kaister



Series: gift art for others [27]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fanart, Gen, Gift Art, warlord au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:29:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24481309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaister/pseuds/Kaister
Summary: Banner Art for inexplicifics 'The Accidental Warlord and His Pack' series.From the kinkmeme: AU Warlord!Geralt receives Tribute!Jaskier as a sacrifice to appease him in every way possible. Jaskier has no choice on the matter and he’s fully aware of the awful rumours that have spread about Geralt and his ruthless conquests. (But we all know those aren’t legit.) A classic angst with a happy ending please! A dash of smut to heal those scars and a sprinkle of new found love!
Relationships: Eskel & Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Jaskier | Dandelion, Eskel/Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Eskel/Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Lambert/Original female Character
Series: gift art for others [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1286225
Comments: 19
Kudos: 110





	1. The Accidental Warlord and His Pack

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inexplicifics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inexplicifics/gifts).
  * Inspired by [With a Conquering Air](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23273713) by [inexplicifics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inexplicifics/pseuds/inexplicifics). 



> I"ve made one art banner for each fic in the series. They are going to have their own chapter.

Cover Art for the Whole Series.


	2. With A Conquering Air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Jaskier arrives at Kaer Morhen knowing his family gave him up without a second thought, and absolutely sure that the dreaded Warlord of the North will value him even less than his own blood did. But the White Wolf and his pack are not what Jaskier expected…and if he’s unreasonably lucky, Kaer Morhen might become far more of a home than Lettenhove ever was.

Exerpt: 

_"Now, for a long time, Witchers stayed well out of politics.” Jaskier’s eyebrows go up: conquering Kaedwen and Caingorn and two-thirds of Redania and the top half of Aedirn, with obvious plans to keep going once the current conquests have been digested, doesn’t seem like staying out of politics to him. “As I understand it,” Triss continues, “Geralt was out hunting monsters, and ran across some of the victims of the last king of Kaedwen. Have you heard of him?”_

__

__

_“I’ve heard...rumors,” Jaskier admits. They weren’t nice rumors, either. The sort of things you can’t talk about with children around. The sort of things that...well, that get kings overthrown, if they’re stupid enough to do them to nobles rather than peasants. Or even just to too many peasants._

_“Apparently - and I wasn’t here for this, mind you, this is just what I’ve heard from those who were here - Geralt came back to Kaer Morhen that winter and asked a question. ‘We kill monsters. What about the ones that are shaped like men?’”_

_Jaskier’s eyes go wide. If there were ever words meant for a song - oh, he can work with this. He can make a whole damn song cycle with this. The White Wolf spake to the whole wolf pack, shrewd were his words and wise - ‘For we are meant to monsters slay, in fair or foul guise’ - oh yes, there’s enough here to give him inspiration for years._

-Chapter 3


	3. I Would Follow Your Soul As It Leads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Seven moments in Eskel’s life as Geralt’s best friend - and the right hand of the Warlord of the North - as they build their Pack together.

Excerpt:

_As dawn breaks, hours later, Eskel watches Geralt’s steel sword rise and catch the light, and wonders idly if Geralt ought to have used silver. Silver for monsters, after all._

__

__

_But steel is quite good enough to take the king of Kaedwen’s head._


	4. Only Love Proudly and Gladly and Well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Three months into his relationship with the White Wolf, Warlord of the North and terror of the continent, Jaskier goes back to Redania as part of the Warlord’s negotiating team. They return with a treaty…but there are unexpected consequences to revealing his place at the White Wolf’s side.This will make a lot more sense if you have read With a Conquering Air first.

Excerpt: 

_“How did they choose you?” Natalia whispers. “Or - did you volunteer?”_

__

__

_Jaskier grimaces. “No,” he says. “I didn’t volunteer. I was as scared as you can imagine, just like everyone else.” He takes a deep breath. “I. Count de Lettenhove. Decided he could spare a son.”_

_“Your fucking father?” Lambert says, rounding to stare at Jaskier. “That smarmy asshole who tried to get that piece of shit treaty past us? Him? He sent you off to be -” he breaks off, snarling under his breath, and paces faster. Aubry’s hand on Jaskier’s back has taken a firm grip on his doublet, as though Aubry is worried that he’ll need to carry Jaskier off to safety at any moment._

-Chapter 1


	5. I Would Beat With Your Heart As It Beats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: It’s Eskel who smells the blood and finds the bard.The Warlord’s right hand doesn’t get to panic, so instead, Eskel…copes.

Excerpt: 

_Eskel has known he’d follow Geralt to the very gates of hell since they were both too young to even know what being a Witcher really meant. He’s known he would kill or die for Ciri since the moment she first looked at him and loved him without even noticing his scars. But he’s not quite sure when Jaskier became one of the people whose wellbeing is more important to Eskel than his own._

-Chapter 1


	6. Your Faults Had Made Me Love You More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Milena finds her feet in the White Wolf’s court. Lambert attempts to figure out how to flirt.

Excerpt: 

_Lambert nods. “You’re not a warrior,” he agrees. “And I’m known to be a fucking asshole, so. Most obvious conclusion is I hurt you.”_

_“Oh no,” Milena says, horrified. “You wouldn’t.”_

_Lambert blinks at her. “You mean that,” he says at last, and breathes in, slow and thoughtful. “Huh. Yeah. You mean that.”_

_“I might still be wary of the White Wolf,” Milena says, a little tartly, “but I stopped being scared of you sometime around the day you carried me down a mountainside so gently I barely even noticed we were moving.” That’s a good memory, in point of fact: his arms were warm and strong and gentle, and the rumble of his voice was oddly comforting, and by the time they got back to the keep, she’d gone from being disturbed by his slitted eyes to thinking the amber shade really quite lovely._

_“Oh,” says Lambert, looking like he’s been whacked upside the head with a club again. “That’s. Good?” He swallows hard and looks down and only then seems to notice that she’s still holding his hand._

__

-Chapter 5


	7. Twirl Three Notes And Make A Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: The Warlord of the North receives an invitation to the elven summer festival, and Geralt sends Jaskier, Eskel, and Ciri (and more than a dozen overprotective Witchers) off to be diplomatic.Or: Eskel finally gets to take a vacation. If you can call riding herd on Jaskier and the little menace a vacation.

Excerpt: 

_It’s somehow easier, talking without being able to see each other, Eskel thinks. “A Witcher’s life is a fucking long time.”_

_“Hm,” Geralt agrees. “Regrets?”_

_“No,” Eskel says. It’s not a duty he ever expected - not one they were trained for - but he can’t regret picking it up. He feels his way carefully through the thoughts, choosing each word like he would a potion, a blade. “Witchers didn’t used to have legacies,” he says slowly. “We went out on the Path, and we killed monsters, and the next year, there were monsters again, and eventually we died and our names were lost, and another Witcher came along to kill the next batch of monsters, over and over again.”_

_“Hm,” Geralt says, and Eskel hears, Go on. He’s always been good at hearing the words Geralt’s bad at saying._

_“Us, though,” Eskel says. “All of us who follow the White Wolf. We’ve made a difference. We’ve got a legacy. In our lands, we are getting rid of the monsters. There are fewer every year. I’ve got a chart. And they don’t come back. And our names - people will remember us, Geralt. Your little lark is right, we need a historian, because our names won’t be forgotten. That’s...something new. Something big. We’ve changed the shape of the world. And that’s changing us._

__

-Chapter 4


	8. Oh Soul, I Said, Have You No Tears?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Many years ago, Vesemir was chosen to be the chief trainer for the Wolf School. He’s very good at it. He hates doing it. And he knows this is the way things always have been and always will be…Or is it?

Excerpt: 

_Vesemir can’t really explain why he bothers to write down their names, their dates of death, the enemies which slew them. He doesn’t tell anyone, doesn’t mention it during the meetings to go over how successful the most recent set of Trials were, how many new-trained Witchers survived their first year on the Path, how many boys have been brought in, shaky-kneed and wide-eyed, to be broken and remade._

_The years march on, and the boys come in, and three in ten of them survive long enough to venture out onto the Path, and Vesemir buries his love and his grief so deeply that sometimes even he believes that he is made of the dark stone of the mountains, cold and hard and utterly unfeeling._

__


	9. I Have Heart-Fire And Singing To Give

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Jaskier is invited to come and sing at Oxenfurt - an honor he has never dreamed he would be granted so young. But leaving Kaer Morhen has its perils…and there are those who would very much like to get their hands on the Consort of the Warlord of the North.

Excerpt: 

_“Remember what the little menace was learning last month?” she whispers._

_What the little menace was learning last month? Apart from her normal lessons with Jaskier and Milena and Yen and Triss and the Witchers, she was -_

_Oh right. She managed to talk Cedric into - into teaching her to pick locks. And Milena had -_

_Jaskier starts to smile. And Milena had tagged along, because, she’d said, if she was the princess’s lady-in-waiting, she should have as many useful skills as possible._

_“Lambert got you special hairpins, didn’t he,” Jaskier murmurs._

_Milena nods. “They didn’t take them,” she replies, just as softly. “Nor my holdout daggers.”_

_“Of course you have holdout daggers,” Jaskier sighs, grinning. “Bless Lambert and all his works.”_

__

-Chapter 3


	10. Stamped In The Mint Of Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Zofia had a sister, once.The White Wolf gave Zofia vengeance. It’s up to her to heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found pictures of embroidered flowers and definitely had to use them. Especially since they seem to mean so much to Zofia.

Excerpt: 

_She’s been his lover for a decade when she finally tells him about Anna. Beautiful Anna, with the sunlight in her hair. Sweet Anna, who was Zofia’s sister and daughter and the center of her world. Dead Anna, wrapped in rags, victim of a human monster’s lusts._

_Auckes kisses her forehead and doesn’t say anything at all, but three weeks later he comes back from a hunt with a silver pendant. It looks like the Viper pendant she’s been wearing for a couple of years now, but with a secret: a tiny compartment built into the back, just large enough for a lock of golden hair.  
_


	11. All My World Is In Your Arms

Excerpt

_Milena twirls away for a moment and then back into his arms, beaming up at him, cheeks flushed and eyes gleaming. Lambert is grinning, too, wider than Ciri can remember him doing ever before Milena came to Kaer Morhen, without any edges to it, no sharp sarcasm or bitter humor._

_“Someday,” Liliana says, “I’d like a man who looks at me like that.”_


	12. Live On a Hill Against the Sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Origin story of Jan, the Steward of Kaer Morhen

Excerpt: 

_The man goes to his knees in front of Geralt’s throne and presses his head to the stone floor, trembling. Geralt, who is not in point of fact in his throne, looks over at Eskel, who shrugs eloquently. He sure as fuck doesn’t know what this is about._

_“Speak,” Geralt says after a moment._

_“Please, lord,” the kneeling man says, voice breaking. “I have come to beg the White Wolf for aid. I will pay anything. Please. The monster has taken my child - all our children.” Aw shit, Eskel thinks. ‘All our children’ is a bad, bad phrase._


End file.
